Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1887-03-18
The Drummer's License Tax.

The recent decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States upon the ques
tion of the license tax imposed by the
State of Tennessee upon nonresident ira
ders, or 'drummers'' as they are called, in
which the right of the State to levy such
a tax has been denied, as in conflict with
the Federal Constitution, promises to in
troduce quite vexed question which will
seriously revolutionize the tax systems Of
the several States.
The question has heretofore been raised
more than once in the courts as to the
right of State to impose greater license
tax upon a nonresident trader, citizen
of another of the United States, than upon
its own citizens engaged in the same
branch of trade. In these cases the courts
have held that the imposition of greater
tax upon the nonresident, than upon the
native trader, was in conflict with that
clause of the Federal constitution which
says that "citizens Of each State shall be
entitled to all privileges aud immunities
of citizens in the several States"
But the recent decision in the Tennessee
case, if the press reports OF it are correct,
goes still further and denies he right of q
State to impose any license tar at all on a
resident of another State doing CONNER
cial business within such State. The i'm
position o. such tax by State is held
to be an interference with interstate com
merce, the exclusive regulation of which
has been delegated by the Federal consti-
tion to the general government.
1t will be readily seen that this decis-
ion, if it is correctly reported, will have a
revolutionary effect upon the tax systems
of the several States. In nearly every
State the tax upon traders licenses con-
stitutes an important source of revenue.
These taxes serve to shift the burdens OF
taxation for the public revenues in large
measure from agricultural lands and out
fits and the fixtures Of many other useful
dud SduSC tuCu ~ oS SuaiCa
by speculative tradesmen, whose profits
are large and whose avocations are, for
the most part, not indispensable.
But it is manifest that, if tradesmen
from other States, who do not reside at
all in the State where they trade, or con-
tribute in any way to the public revenues,
are to be permitted to come in, license
free, and sell their merchandise with i'm
punity, that the resident trader, who is
required to pay tax fer the privilege of
conducting his business, will soon be
pushed to the wall and forced out OF bust
ness 1t is clear then that either some
means of imposing license tax upon the
nonresident trader co-extensive st leas,
with that of the resident tradesmen, must
be devised, or else this important source
of revenue in the several States must fail,
and the burdens of it be transferred in a
large measure to the already over burdened
farming and other interests.
The tax upon traders licenses, as it ex-
lists In nearly all of the United States res s
upon a sound and just foundation and
should be maintained. But to so main
tain il, in the face of the above mentioned
decision of the Supreme Court, either
Congress must pass a law GOV ering the
ground referred to, or an amendment to
the Federal constitution, reserving to the
several States the right of regulating inter
State commerce to tina, extent, must be
adopted. One or the other should be
done